Saskatchewan Gen Web Project - SASKATCHEWAN AND ITS PEOPLE by JOHN HAWKES Vol 1I 1924 BR>


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SASKATCHEWAN AND ITS PEOPLE
1924



         

PERSONAL KNOWLEDGE OF THE EARLY EUROPEAN IMMIGRANT.

THE FINNS.

The Finns are not very well known in Saskatchewan as a whole and as I knew the Finn colonists very well indeed, and have admiration for them, I will deal with the Finn colony in some detail. There is no handier or hardworking man than the Finn as will appear as I go on. The land on the banks of Qu'Appelle valley allotted to these colonists was exceed- ingly rough as a rule, being deeply cut with ravines, very rocky in places, all bluffed more or less with small dense poplar and tough willow; in many places very rocky; open spaces of any size capable of cultivation with- out much labor of some kind were almost non-existent. Before roads were made in some cases a man would have to go quite a way round to visit a neighbor on the same section. The indomitable Finn has however now conquered all these natural difficulties and it is a very pleasant and by no means unpicturesque settlement today. To illustrate the condition I may say that I revisited the settlement after it had been going some ten years, and found one Jacob Haulm with forty acres under cultivation. It was in five separate patches. On that occasion the friend with me wanted a photograph of Jacob sitting on his binder, with the family. All were quite willing, but the whole family insisted on putting on their best raiment. Jacob is therefore represented in the picture as driving the binder in his Sunday clothes.

The Finns came in at the end of the eighties or the beginning of the nineties. The leading man among them was a Mr. Millimaki, who had a homestead in the Sudbury country, New Ontario. When nickel was dis- covered he sold his rocky holding for what was a very handsome sum in those days; I believe it was ten thousand dollars. This enabled him to make an excellent start in the Northwest Territories and his portion of land in the colony, though fairly typical of the whole, was certainly one of the best. The Finns were members of the Finnish Lutheran Church, and the nearest pastor of that religious body resided in Michigan, U.S. A. There was no Finnish Lutheran Church in Canada at that time. For some years Mr. Millimaki was not only the "guide, philosopher and friend" of his compatriots in things material; he was their spiritual chief. Not being an ordained minister he was in the same position as Mr. Olson of the Swedes (of whom more later on) and could not marry or baptise. He held service and preached and did the duties of an elder and deacon; that was all, but the whole business was irregular as it had no ecclesiastical sanction. Marriages and baptisms had to be performed by other min- isters.

I think it was in 1897 that a Finnish minister came up from Ironwood, Michigan, to this Finn colony of ours and regularized the condition by forming a legal church. I met him and had a long talk with him about his people. He was about thirty-five years of age, blue-eyed, with a long blond beard and moustache, and refined face. He came into Whitewood to reg- ister the marriage of Mr. Millimaki's son. He told me that there were two kinds of Finns of two different faiths and two different dispositions Bibliography follows:



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THE STORY
OF
SASKATCHEWAN
AND ITS PEOPLE



By JOHN HAWKES
Legislative Librarian



Volume II
Illustrated



CHICAGO - REGINA
THE S.J. CLARKE PUBLISHING COMPANY
1924



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